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A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Francie Brady is terribly wounded in the hospital. The movie flashes back. Francie and Joe play together. Francie's father (Stephen Rea) is a violent drunk. His mother is suicidal and is taken away. Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw) doesn't like him and he doesn't like her. Francie's mom returns in a manic state. Uncle Alo (Ian Hart) comes by for a Christmas visit. After his mother's death, Francie starts bullying little Phillip Nugent and Mrs. Nugent.The kid is a hateful brat and I can't stand him. I can't stand most of the characters in this movie. I want to beat some sense into the boy or quite frankly anybody. The adults are mostly clueless idiots or drunks. I don't see any of this as charming but Neil Jordan seems intend on making this quirky. The music, the narration, and the whole tone is way too light. The tone needs to be darken to match the subject. I kept wondering if Neil Jordan thinks any of this is actually funny and why? This could have been great material for a super-dark super-violent drama.

Neil Jordan directed one of the most twisted -- and cleverest -- movies in "The Butcher Boy". It focuses on a disturbed boy (Eamonn Owens) in an Irish village in the early '60s. A combination of his broken home and the threat of nuclear war push the little guy into complete insanity. Seriously, you aren't prepared for some of what this tyke does! Of course, the audience understands that the kid is merely a product of his environment, and so his actions -- no matter how jaw-dropping -- aren't really his fault. But the movie never moralizes. Jordan lets the movie be all that it can be, and the result is amazing. Watching the movie, I got the feeling that they had a lot of fun making it, with the understanding that it's got a pretty serious subject matter.Anyway, definitely worth your time. Also starring Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter movies), Aisling O'Sullivan, Seán McGinley, Ian Hart (Prof. Quirrell in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"), Brendan Gleeson (Mad-eye Moody in the Harry Potter movies), Milo O'Shea (Friar Laurence in Franco Zefferelli's "Romeo and Juliet"), and Sinéad O'Connor.

to whoever wrote the comment about the accents and it being glad the film wasn't set in the USA. your comments were nice but displayed appalling ignorance. the film is based on a book by pat McCabe set up in north west Ireland which is the north west of Ireland so you'll excuse the actors for having Irish accents. the book is much darker and is a kin d of comment on the darker aspects of Irish society back in the 19860s. READ THE BOOK. also why does every film have to be set in the USA to be good? the film is wonderful and the whole surreal and narrator thing is the whole point. the narrator is Francie grown up. please do some more research and come back and post comments then. the ignorance is embarrassing and also makes Americans look really stupid although they are not

I'm glad I finally got around to checking out THE BUTCHER BOY - it's one of those sort of films that I've been keeping my eye on for a while, but never managed to pick it up. It turned out to be another strange, cult-like gem that was well worth waiting for.Francie is a troubled kid growing up in working class Ireland in a household where his mother is nuts and his father's a drunk. His one true friend, Joe is all Francie really has, until fate (and Francie's penchant for trouble-making) separate the boys. The rest of the film chronicles Francie's sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, sometimes disturbing descent into his own madness...A strange films that will run you through the range of emotions - THE BUTCHER BOY is an original film that's hard to compare to any other. I guess I would say it somewhat reminded me of BAD BOY BUBBY (not in "content" - more in how it "effected" me) as like BBB - THE BUTCHER BOY has parts that are funny, witty, dark, sad, disturbing, heartfelt, and much more - all in one film, without feeling like it's being taken overboard. Another BIG plus - is that oftentimes I'm annoyed by child-leads in films - but Francie's character (and actually all the child actors for that matter) were spot-on in this film. My ONLY real gripe is that many of the characters have such a strong Irish accent that I couldn't tell what the hell they were saying half the time - but that's not their fault, I just found it a bit distracting. A truly strange treasure that I highly suggest checking out...9/10